The Vietnam Report Joint-Stock Company on Nov. 25 issued its fourth annual list of the top 500 Vietnamese companies, with Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group heading the list.

Nearly half of the companies in the VNR500 are State-owned enterprises. Foreign-invested and private companies account for 23.8 percent and 31.2 percent, respectively.

The proportion of private companies in the VNR500 has increased yearly, making up 24 percent in 2008 and 30 percent in 2009.

The Vietnam Report ranks companies according to independent criteria, such as enterprises with the biggest benefits; enterprises with the biggest total assets; and enterprises with the biggest number of employees.

Besides the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group, the top 10 included the Vietnam National Petroleum Corporation, Electricity of Vietnam, Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group, Vietnam National Coal-Mineral Industries Group, Saigon Jewelry Company Limited, Viettel Group, Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam Southern Food Corporation and Petro Vietnam Exploration Production Corporation.

VNR500 is the result of an independent survey conducted by Vietnam Report with the support and consultancy of domestic and foreign experts, headed by US Professor John Quelch, Associate Dean of Harvard Business School .

The organising board said it based the ranking on the Forbes 500 model and on international standards.

The database was sourced from figures on total assets, turnover, profit, growth rate and number of labourers compiled by the General Statistics Office (GSO), and surveys and prospectuses provided by enterprises.

The top 500 are companies that have prominent production and business results and made great contributions to the development of Vietnam 's economy./.